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spit and bite hoods

Action Needed to Embed Human Rights Compliant Policing

2 July 2024
Sam Nelson
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Categories: News

02 July 2024

The Northern Ireland Policing Board has today published its ‘5 Year Human Rights Review’. The initial summary report demonstrates a need to properly embed human rights compliance within frontline policing. It also highlights that, of the 119 previous recommendations made by the Board over the last five years, only 24 have been implemented by the PSNI.

A number of the key issues mentioned in the report relate to work that the Children’s Law Centre has consistently raised in relation to the policing of children and young people. These include:

  • The misuse and abuse of stop and search powers
  • Strip searching of children and young people in custody
  • Uses of force, including the use of spit hoods on children and young people

Speaking after the report was published, Fergal McFerran, Policy and Public Affairs Manager at the Children’s Law Centre, commented: “The Children’s Law Centre has consistently raised our concerns in relation to a number of areas of policing policy and practice. These have included serious breaches of human rights standards that have been criticised by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child.

“While the summary report claims that the PSNI is human rights aware, the Children’s Law Centre agree with its additional assertion that the PSNI has some distance to go to be truly human rights compliant. That must include a better record in implementing recommendations from the Policing Board, as well as implementing recommendations from international human rights experts.”

Mr McFerran continued: “We welcome that a number of the issues raised by CLC over the past years have been referenced in the summary report. This includes the use of spit hoods, strip searches of children in custody and stop and search.

It is particularly encouraging to see that the ‘Human Rights Review of Children and Young People: Strip Searching in Police Custody’ is recognised as having a significant impact on policing practice. The Children’s Law Centre fought hard to secure this review and will continue to scrutinise the PSNI on the issue.

“However, it is disappointing that previous Board recommendations around spit hoods were ignored. The misuse and abuse of stop and search powers also continues, with the report recognising issues around the low outcome rates and the damaging impact on community relations, as well as the impact on trust in the police by children and young people. The PSNI should also finally get to grips with their duty to record and report community background data.

“Children and young people must be seen as rights holders and the PSNI should act to deliver a policing approach which truly respects and fulfils the human rights of our young people.”

The NI Policing Board’s report can be found at https://www.nipolicingboard.org.uk/publication/human-rights-5-year-review

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Chief Constable criticised for spit hoods roll-out in defiance of policing board

4 March 2021
Sam Nelson
No comments
Categories: News

04 March 2021

The Children’s Law Centre, Amnesty International, CAJ and Include Youth wrote to Doug Garrett, chair of the Policing Board, ahead of their meeting on Thursday 4 March, to ask the Board what steps they are taking to ensure their clear recommendation that all spit hoods by withdrawn by the end of 2020 is followed.

In November 2020, the Northern Ireland Policing Board recommended their immediate phasing out in its report, Review of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Response to Covid 19.

Instead, PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne has started distributing spit hoods to 4,000 additional police officers.

New figures show that, to date, the PSNI has used spit hoods 95 times. They were used on children (aged 10 to 17) eight times.

In 81% of cases (68 out of 84 incidents) of their use by the PSNI in 2020, spit hoods were used on people with disabilities.

The figures have come to light in a document published as part of a PSNI equality impact assessment launched this week, almost a year after the introduction of the devices.

Patrick Corrigan, Northern Ireland Programme Director of Amnesty International, said:

“The decision to roll out spit hoods, rather than withdraw them from use as advised by the Policing Board, is shocking.

“It is disturbing that in more than eight out of ten incidents, the PSNI has used spit hoods on people with disabilities and, on eight occasions, on children.

“The Chief Constable rushed to deploy spit hoods without evidence that they are effective in preventing the transmission of Covid-19. Now he is doubling down on that flawed decision, in outright defiance of the Policing Board.

“Placing a hood over someone’s head is a significant use of force and one that raises key concerns over cruel and degrading treatment, as well as serious potential health risks.

“These devices must be withdrawn from use, as called for by the Policing Board.”

Paddy Kelly, Director of the Children’s Law Centre, said:

“The Children’s Law Centre are extremely concerned that eight spit and bite guards were applied to children during the last year. In the cases of one 16 year-old and one 15 year-old, two spit and bite guards were applied during the same incident. This use of force must have been a frightening experience for these children.

“Their use on children is even more concerning given that children who come in contact with police are more likely to have a disability, mental ill-health or a learning disability. A police officer using a spit hood on a child cannot know if a child has a learning disability or suffers from asthma.

“In the light of medical evidence that the use of spit and bite hoods may increase the risk of Covid-19 infection to both police and members of the public, there can be absolutely no justification for their use on children. Spit and bite guards should be withdrawn in compliance with the Policing Board’s report of November 2020.

“We and other civil society organisations have now written to the Policing Board to ask them what steps they are taking to ensure their clear recommendation that all spit hoods by withdrawn by the end of 2020 is followed.”